Dog Halloween Safety Tips

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Over the past week I started receiving dog Halloween safety tips in my email inbox and through my RSS reader. I did take the time to scan several of the emails and articles and decided that it might be a good idea to share some of these dog Halloween safety tips with all my doggie friends.

A lot of the tips are common sense, but just getting a short refresher list will help you and I be aware of any dangers that might be lurking this Halloween.

Dog Halloween Safety Tips

Here are a few Halloween safety tips for you and your dog:

Dressing Your Dog In A Halloween Costume – Is Lex dressed up as Pink the Pig for Halloween? Some dogs and dog owners enjoy dressing up in Dog Halloween costumes. We put a post of The 6 Best Dog Costumes On The Internet here on Puppy In Training. Guide Dogs of America encourages us to dress up our dogs. The main reason being that they want us to handle our dogs paws, ears, claws, face…etc. so the dog won’t be shy or timid when their blind owner reaches for them or grooms them. Dressing up your dog is a good way to teach your dog to be tolerant when getting handled in different ways. That being said I wouldn’t dress my dog if I did not think he was comfortable in his costume. Linus does not like getting dressed up, so when Halloween rolls around he does not wear a costume. Be careful with your dog costumes. Make sure the costume is comfortable fitting. Also, do not leave your dog unattended when in a Halloween costume…keep a close eye on him and make sure he does not accidentally choke himself or ingest parts of the costume.

Keep Your Dog Indoors – This may not always be possible, but Halloween brings added noise and activity that can potentially frighten (isn’t that the point of Halloween…not for your dog) your dog. While this may be fun for kids running around in costumes it’s not so fun for your dog. If possible try to keep your dog indoors away from those scary ghosts and goblins.

The Counter Surfing Dogs – I’m sure no one likes their dog counter surfing (taking items from the table top). This can be especially harmful to a dog during Halloween…chocolate can be quickly gobbled up (especially if you have Labrador Retrievers like me), but it’s quite toxic to your dog.

Scary Halloween Decorations – While scary Halloween decorations can be fun for you and the family they can potentially be harmful to your dog. Candles in Jack-O-Lanterns can be knocked over burning your dog. Glass decorations can be broken or consumed. I’ve even heard of a dog consuming an entire pumpkin. When decorating your home be sure to keep your dog in mind and a close eye on his actions when he’s around any Halloween decorations.

Trick or Treaters – Some dogs can be quite fearful of people in scary costumes. Others might be just fine. If you live in a neighborhood with lots of children then you will potentially have lots of trick-or-treaters. If your dog is like Linus my Aussie mix then he will not enjoy the ringing of the doorbell over and over as well as children in scary costumes. It also might be a good idea to keep your dog away from the front door with a baby gate. If you invite guests inside you should introduce them to your dog in a positive manner. If your dog’s still frightened you might want to keep him in another part of your home to avoid the commotion of Halloween guests.

I hope this list of Dog Halloween Safety Tips helps keep you dogs and puppies safe this Halloween. If you have any additional tips I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.

Do you have any additional Dog Halloween Safety Tips? Anything you’d like to add about this coming Halloween? By the way if you enjoy seeing dogs in costumes check out the Halloween Dog Costume Parade in Long Beach this coming Sunday, October 26th.

About Colby

Colby Morita has raised guide and service dog puppies for Guide Dogs of America and Canine Support Teams. He's been writing to the PuppyInTraining.com blog and sharing his puppy training tips from his experiences as a guide dog puppy raiser since 2007.